Art Review: St. Anthony & Goya Deliver Timely Truth in Madrid

I’m visiting Madrid, Rome, and my family, whom I haven’t seen in a while, in the Marche, in central Italy. Museums are open almost everywhere, but tourism is dead in both Italy and Spain. In Rome, I saw the exhibition of the Torlonia Marbles, the world’s finest private collection of ancient Roman sculpture. It’s never been shown before. I’ll write on that later this week. Roman and Greek sculpture differ in many ways but primarily in portraiture. This genre barely exists in Greek sculpture, in which faces are beautiful or handsome but generic, while bodies can be lissome or built like football players.

Roman portrait sculpture lets it all hang out, sagging jowls, crow’s feet, noses the size of Jimmy Durante’s, and hairdos à la mode. If the long-ago dead could speak, what would they say? In Roman portraiture, marble looks willing to try.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

I’m visiting Madrid, Rome, and my family, whom I haven’t seen in a while, in the Marche, in central Italy. Museums are open almost everywhere, but tourism is dead in both Italy and Spain. In Rome, I saw the exhibition of the Torlonia Marbles, the world’s finest private collection of ancient Roman sculpture. It’s never been shown before. I’ll write on that later this week. Roman and Greek sculpture differ in many ways but primarily in portraiture. This genre barely exists in Greek sculpture, in which faces are beautiful or handsome but generic, while bodies can be lissome or built like football players.

Roman portrait sculpture lets it all hang out, sagging jowls, crow’s feet, noses the size of Jimmy Durante’s, and hairdos à la mode. If the long-ago dead could speak, what would they say? In Roman portraiture, marble looks willing to try.